The final weekend of September approaches. After a weekend of sparse openings, the 24th -27th features 4 promising openings.
On The 24th--- Soulstice Theatre’s production of Tuesdays With Morrie. Char Manny directs the drama starring Don Devona in the title role of a college professor suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease. I wasn’t previously familiar with the book by Mitch Albom when I saw Robert Spencer in the role in a Milwaukee Rep production of the drama. That role really defined Robert Spencer for me as an actor, so it’s going to be interesting seeing someone else in the role in a far more intimate venue. The Marian Center’s Soulstice Academy Studio Theatre is being used in a proscenium capacity here . . . the show runs through October 10th.
Also Opening On The 24th Carte Blanche Studios, which only recently opened a shiny, new website pitches the opening farce of the weekenda production of French playwright Marc Camoletti’s Don’t Dress For Dinner. It’s the story of a man named Bernard who is trying to get his wife to go to her mother’s place for the weekend so he can spend some time having an affair with a Parisian model. Clayton Hamburg, (who did a remarkable job as Puck in Carte Blanche’s Midsummer Night’s Dream this past summer) plays the male lead here. Shannon Nettesheim plays his wife. A couple of years back, Nettesheim made her Milwaukee-area theatre debut in a production of Five Women Wearing The Same Dress at the Sunset Playhouse, a comedy directed by Jonathan West. Nettesheim showed considerable comic potential in that role. It’ll be interesting to see he here. Bernard’s mistress is played by Margaret Muza. The show runs through October 4th
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On The 25th Approaching its 60th season, The Bay Players follows one farce with another as it presents its production of Noises Off! This is the third production of Michael Frayn’s popular backstage farce to be launched in greater Milwaukee in less than a year. Raymond Bradford directs. The show runs through October 3rd.
Also Opening the 25thWindfall Theatre presents the Milwaukee premiere of The Receptionist. The contemporary office comedy stars Carol Zippel as the title character. Zippel’s characters works in an office populated by characters played by Larry Birkett, Mark Bucher and Sonia Rosenthal. It’d be kind of interesting to work in an office with those three regardless of whether or not they were in character. Rosenthal was captivating in Windfall’s production of a similar offbeat comedy (Betty’s Summer Vacation) last season. Larry Birkett has a clever kind of precision about his stage presence that should be interesting in an office setting. And then there’s Mark Bucherthe Artistic Director of the Boulevard Theatre, who had returned to the stage last season with a really powerful monologue in Boulevard’s Stations of the Cross. The dark, modern office comedy runs through October 10th.
